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This Week's 5 Smartest Stock Moves

There's always time to look at the bright side of life.

Feeling down? Let's go over some of the more uplifting headlines of the past seven days. Rest assured, this week's headlines weren't all layoffs, missed earnings, and shrinking guidance.

1. There's green in them there red mailersTwo cheers for Netflix(NASDAQ:NFLX)! The DVD rental giant kicked off the week by reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter results. A 19% top-line gain during a recessionary holiday -- and even faster growth in profitability -- is certainly worth at least two hips and a hooray.

The second cheer lauds the company's slick announcement that it's testing the practice of shipping out rentals on Saturday. The company has historically only staffed its distribution centers from Monday through Friday.

That's a great preemptive strike, since the Postmaster General is now discussing scaling back the mail delivery schedule. To trim the USPS budget, postal service may be suspended on a typically light day for mail like Tuesday. Such a move would normally devalue a Netflix subscription, so it's great to see Netflix offer more before the government cuts back.

2. Tying The KnotWedding-day planning hub The Knot(NASDAQ:KNOT) is a BFBFF, or Best FaceBook Friend Forever. The company is acquiring WedSnap, the company behind Facebook's most popular wedding app.

WedSnap's Weddingbook allows wedding guests to convene, socialize, and gear up for the big day together online.

It remains to be seen whether social networking is a threat or an opportunity to a niche leader like The Knot, but why take the chance? By snapping up the app leader, The Knot is positioned to profit either way.

3. Not the Skype typeeBay(NASDAQ:EBAY) may finally be loosening its grip on Skype. Media buzz speculates that the voice-chat platform is on the block, after eBay's CEO conceded that Skype is a good stand-alone company, but not a good synergistic fit with the rest of the company.

eBay finally seems to realize that it will never be prudent to have buyers and sellers talk on their computers, since they may very well devise ways to circumvent the auction site -- and its commission fees.

The company is unlikely to recoup the $2.6 billion it originally laid out for the telephony app. What reasonable telco provider would buy a cannibal? However, it's easy to see a cash-rich dot-com like Google(NASDAQ:GOOG) or Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) snapping up the fast-growing platform to dominate the IM with voice chat space. Since Skype accounts for just 6% of eBay revenue, losing it would hardly worsen the weakness in the company's marketplace business. As long eBay it keeps PayPal -- the only real reason to own the company these days -- it will be just fine.

4. Start swearing purpleRemember the original Saturday Night Live news updates, when Chevy Chase would pronounce that Generalissimo Francisco Franco was still dead? It seems as if every three months, we find ourselves confirming that Yahoo!(NASDAQ:YHOO) is still alive.

At long last, though, the company's enjoying renewed optimism, even if its quarterly results saw revenue (before traffic acquisition costs) take a dip. For starters, the search-engine giant actually beat Wall Street's profit expectations. Perhaps more importantly, it finally has an outsider CEO armed with a ridiculous amount of cash ($3.5 billion), a lot of baked-in pessimism, and (we hope) fresh ideas to snap the company out of its slump.

5. You go, E*Trade BabyBe on the lookout for a new E*Trade(NASDAQ:ETFC) Baby ad during Sunday's Super Bowl. While you're there, you may as well keep an eye on the company itself. The discount broker posted promising fourth-quarter numbers this week.

Though E*Trade isn't profitable like its peers, the company did close out the quarter with 97,000 more accounts than when it started. After E*Trade survived all the turbulence following its iffy mortgage loans in 2007, this is one discounter Fools should no longer discount.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is an optimist at every turn. He's the inspiration for The Killers' "Mr. Brightside" song. He does not own shares in any of the stocks in this story, save for Netflix. Rick is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has adisclosure policy.

Author

Rick has been writing for Motley Fool since 1995 where he's a Consumer and Tech Stocks Specialist. Yes, that's a long time with more than 20,000 bylines over those 22 years. He's been an analyst for Motley Fool Rule Breakers and a portfolio lead analyst for Motley Fool Supernova since each newsletter service's inception. He earned his BBA and MBA from the University of Miami, and he splits his time living in Miami, Florida and Celebration, Florida.
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